Saskatchewan on high alert as wildfire numbers rise

The province is on high alert when it comes to wildfires in Saskatchewan.

As of Tuesday morning, there had been 102 wildfires this year in Saskatchewan, up from 81 in the same time last year.

Duane McKay is the provincial fire commissioner. He couldn’t say whether this year will be better or worse for wildfires than 2015. He explained that the hot, dry weather we’re experiencing is a recipe for more wildfires, but it will depend a lot on rain and lightning strikes in the high-risk areas.

“(The weather) puts us into what we refer to as a crossover situation, where things are extremely volatile.”

McKay said things can change rapidly, and the province is currently on high alert. Fire bans have been issued in several areas.

“It isn’t that we want to stop all fire, but wherever that fire can cause significant damage then extreme caution needs to taken at this particular time.”

Currently, there’s a lot of fire activity in the southern part of the province, and McKay said it’s moving up into the fringe area in the north.

“We’ve done a lot of that work already, and we’re going to continue over a longer period of time to analyze those gaps in service and looks at ways that we can coordinate better with local jurisdictions as well as within the government.”

As for what’s been done already, McKay said they brought wildfire crews in earlier, they have aircrafts up, and rapid response teams are interacting with municipalities.

McKay said the biggest lesson he learned last year is how the province can come together in trying times.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen in my time where people in the southernmost parts of the province helped the northernmost parts of the province.”